Wall Street drops; posts worst week since August

Wall Street fell sharply yesterday and capped off its worst week since the dark days of August, hurt by a sell off in technology companies while department stores dropped on concerns about the upcoming holiday shopping season.

After the bell, U.S. stock index futures hit session lows in light volume with market participants citing concerns over reports of deadly attacks in Paris.

"The geopolitical aspect is always out there, and anything that brings that back into the headlines will pull the buy orders fairly quickly," said Alan Lancz, President of Alan B. Lancz &amp.

The three major U.S. indexes ended the week down more than three percent firmly putting the brakes on a fast rally that began in October.

Dow component Cisco dropped 5.8 percent after it gave a flimsy forecast citing a slowdown in orders and weak spending outside the United States.

It was the second-biggest drag on the S&amp;P 500 and the Nasdaq weighing on shares of tech heavyweights including Apple and Facebook.

Retailers were hit by disappointing reports from department store chains. Nordstrom lowered its full-year forecast on Thursday spooking investors already on edge after Macy's cut its forecast on Wednesday. In addition, data showed U.S. retail sales rose less than expected in October suggesting a slowdown in consumer spending.

Consumer stocks have been a bright spot this year as weak commodity prices, fears of a global slowdown and anticipation of a U.S. rate hike have hit most stocks especially those of materials, energy and industrial companies.